There are only a handful of websites that I read religiously. One of those is MarginalRevolution.com, started by my next guest, Tyler Cowen.

Other than hosting one of the most popular economic blogs in the world, Tyler is also an economics professor at George Mason University, a regular New York Times columnist, and the author of over a dozen books, including Average is Over, and The Complacent Class.

With such a prolific guest, it’s no wonder that we cover a lot of ground. In this episode, we discuss:

How the future of labor will look drastically different than it does today, and what we can do to future-proof our livelihood

The pros and cons of virtual reality and the impact it could have on society

The fate of newspapers and how information will be more and more “bundled” according to our tastes and preferences

Race relations in the world, and how in many ways we’ve taken discouraging steps backwards

How we’re losing touch with the physical world, and some of the symptoms that indicate that we could be in for a rough ride

What Tyler suggests doing to improve decision making and how important (and rare) that skill will be in the coming years

Tyler’s advice to parents about how to foster resilience, tenacity and internal drive in their children

Tyler’s “quake books” and the reading process he’s developed over the years that keeps him sharp

Why giving books as gifts can be dangerous

The one skill every person should possess before Googling anything

What playing competitive chess as a child taught Tyler about how he thinks and views the world today

And much more, including Tyler’s thoughts on minimum wage, bitcoin, and his favorite television programs.

If you want to upgrade your thinking so you’re prepared for the brave new world that’s rapidly developing before our eyes, you won’t want to miss this fascinating episode.

My guest for this short episode of The Knowledge Project is a man who wears many hats.

Ali Almossawi is a San Francisco-based author of books on critical thinking and computer science education, and the creator of An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments. He is also a principal engineer at Apple and was formerly employed as a data visualization engineer by Mozilla.

His books have been read by 3 million readers, translated into 20 languages, and have sold over a quarter million copies in print.

This interview is only 20 minutes along, but there was a lot I wanted to cover, so we move pretty fast. Specifically, we cover:

The unique format Ali chooses when writing a book to help people understand the concepts more deeply

The place for empathy in algorithmic thinking and how we can be more empathetic in our daily interactions with each other

Ali’s note taking process and how he tracks the ideas and topics he’d like to explore

Ali’s daily routine and the “algorithms” he uses to make the most of his day

The single habit that has the most profound impact on Ali’s day to day

The cost/benefit of sharing on social media and the impact it has on society as a whole

And more.

If you’ve ever wanted to improve the way you process information, think more clearly and make better decisions, you won’t want to miss this interview.